The A5 series is intended as a growing archive on the history of graphic design. Lovely and ambitious.
jc-04.24.15

"Always complain about your email volume, but never be the first to say a specific number. Instead, find out how much email everyone else gets, and then double it. That's how much email you get." 12 Tricks to appear smart in emails.
dw-04.22.15

"If you're just starting out in the exciting world of filling your life with clutter, or should ever find yourself lacking in stationeriments, here's a handy field guide to get you on the right track." —Gray.
jc-03.19.15

"Senators pair their togas with top hats, generals wear muttonchops under their helmets, and priests styled as snake charmers draw gullible crowds with the help of coal-powered rotating billboards." The Comic History of Rome.
dw-02.25.15

"7. A woman is looking at you. She is wearing her hat in a manner you find unbearably independent and mannish. You despise her." So you know, how to tell if you're in a Hemingway novel, by Mallory Ortberg.
jc-01.30.14

So you know. "The following suggestions are published at the request of a number of large business houses that are interested in developing pleasing telephone manners among their employees."
jc-09.11.13

Core77 is sporting wood, specifically mahogany today. Scroll down for previous episodes of this reference series by Rob Wilkey.
jc-08.28.13

So you know, how to take care of your smartphone battery the right way.
ms-08.21.13

"Remember — until the mid-seventeenth century, most people in England were either slightly — or very — drunk all of the time. Drink London's fetid river water at your own peril; most people wisely favoured watered-down ale or beer ('small beer'). The arrival of coffee, then, triggered a dawn of sobriety that laid the foundations for truly spectacular economic growth in the decades that followed as people thought clearly for the first time." The Lost World of the London Coffeehouse.
dw-08.07.13

This morning, the question was raised, "Does 'steel-cut' oatmeal mean the restaurant just used a knife?" Fortunately, BB was quick on the search and discovered this write-up about the different kinds of oatmeal.
sd-04.15.13

Attention East Coasters, everything you need to know about the impending Cicada sex invasion.
ms-04.11.13

So you know, how to make a ship in a bottle when the ship is actually a boat and the boat is Quint's "Orca" from Jaws.jc-04.09.13

I've only just discovered The Paris Review, but it's celebrating its 60th year. I'd learned from another post that if you're creative and feeling a bit stuck, a great thing to do is read a biography or autobiography. The Paris Review has interviews with authors over seven decades. You can search by decade or by author. Prepare to be unstuck.
ab-04.09.13

Designed by a team led by Two Paper Dolls, The Beauty of Letterpress is an online destination that shows how this ancient print craft continues to excite the most progressive designers today. The website is resource center, a gallery of work and place to discover some of the most talented letterpress operators in the United States.
ab-04.03.13

"It's enough for me to know that I'm first in field, as they say. I invented this industry, and I'm happy to share what I've learned, and hopefully empower people to sharpen their own pencils." The Millions chats with David Rees, The Proust of Pencil Sharpeners.
jc-04.24.12

"If you're just starting out in the exciting world of filling your life with clutter, or should ever find yourself lacking in stationeriments, here's a handy field guide to get you on the right track." —Daniel Gray.
jc-12.15.11

"When the annual trip home becomes a customer-service visit to 'fix the internet,' sometimes even bourbon can't save the day." Home for the Holiday Tech Support, a roundtable from The Morning News.
jc-11.22.11

For MJ: the latest series of episodes of Dan Carlin's Hardcore History about the last century of the Roman republic is nothing short of fantastic, particularly the last, massive 6 hour final chapter.
sd-09.12.11

So you know: the Census has determined that the small town of Plato, Missouri is the country's new mean center of population. A commemorative "geodetic control mark" will be placed in the town sometime this month.
sd-04.01.11

"500 years of modern science, reason and critical thinking via the medium of over simplification, dodgy demarcation, glaring omission and a very tiny font." Displayed on a Tube Map. Via Boing Boing.
jc-09.21.10

"It's tough. Very tough. And there is a truth in the fact that only the toughest survive. The lazy ones fail. You need to be proactive, no-one is going to call you. You have to make your own opportunities, make your own destiny. Your success is in your hands. As is your failure." Advice for a design graduate. Via Swiss Miss.
dw-08.10.10

Old time telegraph messages were billed by the word. If there's a loophole, people will find it. Code words for the days of the year and a zillion other codes decoded. Sort of the OMG or LOL of it's day, only much more interesting and Minstrels.jc-06.15.10

So you know, if a Fresh Signals post starts with the words "so you know," it's eventually headed to our Reference Materials Archive, which is sorta like a Whole Earth Catalog that's poorly organized and light on the grooviness.
jc-02.11.10

So you know. "The Mast Brothers Chocolate Factory is New York City's only bean to bar chocolate factory. These photos illustrate
the whole process by which the cacao beans are roasted, ground up, processed, aged, tempered and packaged."
jc-02.02.10

So you know, how to make a pencil crossbow. Hmm, we do have a bunch of Field Notes pencils laying around......
ms-01.28.10

"if my Aunt Rose sees this, she'll be on to me, and not only will she try to hang out in the kitchen: She'll make her annoying huffing disappointment noise all day." How to cook Thanksgiving dinner, by Leslie Harpold.
jc-11.25.09

"I work in one of those humble call centres for a bank. Apparently, what we're doing at the moment is sprinkling our magic along the way. It's a call centre, not Hogwarts." 50 office-speak phrases you love to hate.
ms-10.19.09

"...professional design should not be seen as a certain indicator of accurate content, but visibly amateurish design is sometimes an indicator that the 'Institute of Such-and-Such' might be an obsessive loner." Crap Detection 101.
jc-08.03.09

Ever been in a restaurant, enjoying a great meal only to have that interrupted by the person at the table next to you exclaiming loudly that he simply must take a photo of this dish for his blog and who then proceeds to whip out a camera and starts snapping photos like crazy? I have. So, for the amateur foodies out there, How to politely photograph restaurant food.
ms-06.23.09

"Oscar Wilde was released from prison on Wednesday morning...When Mr. Wilde was dressed in the clothes of fashion - including the frock coat, silk hat, and patent leather boots - he was requested to come down to the main entrance to the prison." The British Library has digitized 2 million pages of 19th century newspapers (many are pay-per-view, Penny Illustrated Paper and The Graphic are free.) Via Scott McMillin.
fg-06.18.09

Check Matt Everson's Astuteo, a nice-looking web development project estimator. Alternately, you could use the patented CP approach to the problem. Guess how much time it will take and then multiply by two and add ten percent. Works every time.
jc-01.12.09

There is no mention that "It's helpful to watch a few minutes of Oprah, check Twitter and have some toast before getting to work on that RFP," but A List Apart readers do have some other tips for working from home.
jc-10.21.08

We don't always buy a book to use what's in it. What's the quickest way to find a document that might be available at a library? WorldCat's your ticket. Enter your search term and you'll get a list of all libraries holding it, radiating from your indicated location. It also has a handy citation format generator.
lch-07.19.08

Dear Lulu is a test book produced by graphic design students at Hochschule Darmstadt, Germany. "...a calibration document for testing colour, pattern, format, texture and typography." Great idea, much needed. Via JSM.
jc-07.10.08

"Be professional. No matter how badly your day may be going, you always want to look like you love selling lemonade and that the lemonade business is booming. Customers don't want to hear about your problems, they want lemonade." How to compete with other lemonade stands.
ms-06.19.08

"My fiancee bought this book for me back when I was in that 'esoteric/vintage instructional material book collecting' phase most young men go through in their early twenties." A Boy's Treasury of Things-to-do. Via Monoscope.
jc-06.03.08

"If you've tried to offset your feelings of dread at blogging with chemical substances, including but not limited to: beer, whiskey, jelly beans, sleeping pills, black beauties or anti-depressants but have found no solace in any of them, you may be in a 'blog hole.'" A public service pamphlet from The Nonist.
jc-04.23.08

So you know. How to make a super-sweet run of tote bags, screen printed using Gocco with an awesome bloody-looking hand on them. In
words and
pictures.
jc-12.21.07

"In a bid to increase the quality and quantity of graffiti,
The Fakeproject Corporation of America has issued a coloring book, free of charge, which allows graffiti artists to practice their tags before application in a real world situation." Via Joey.
jc-12.20.07

"Inspired during a game of 'Don't Break the Ice' with my daughter, I used 12 sets of the game to create a 15x24 grid of cubes. This was set into a custom hardwood frame. When placed in front of a television set, the animated pixelation effect is mezmerizing."jc-08.02.07

"Every library has at least one librarian who is a graphic novel enthusiast. This person will argue vehemently for a new graphic novel collection for your library. Give him a paltry budget to spend each year just to shut him up. It will be money well spent." A Librarian's Guide to Etiquette.
jc-07.06.07

"It can't be stressed enough how important it is to have the shiny side pointing out." An effective, low-cost solution for combating mind-control. Surprisingly, this concept was not included in the Alcoa Book of Decorations, but I'm thinking that the kid at the top of this page is fairly safe.
jc-03.22.07

"Ever felt that LEDs are a little 'cold' or 'plasticky'? Do you yearn for that warm, comforting glow that only ionized gas behind glass can provide?" So you know. How to build a nixie-tube clock.
jc-02.19.07

After feeding my Martini tutorial into the Topicalizer, "the tool for topic extraction, text analysis and abstract generation," it suggested the following keywords: "violent shaking will" and "smallest variation can." Sounds about right. Thanks Geoff.
jc-02.16.07

So you know. Double-Tongued defines the phrase "barmuda triangle" as "a concentration of bars or nightclubs." In Chicago, the passé but popular area bordered by Division, Rush and State, where salesmen and conventioneers congregate, is known as The Viagra Triangle.
jc-01.25.07

So you know. How to use furoshiki, courtesy of the Japanese Ministry of the Environment.
jc-11.28.06

"It can't be stressed enough how important it is to have the shiny side pointing out." So you know. How to make an aluminum foil deflector beanie, an effective, low-cost solution to combatting mind-control.
jc-11.15.06

Orange Yeti picks up on our earlier link to a Freemason tutorial and follows with the very helpful The Structure of Freemasonary. I'm not all that ambitious but "Knight of the Brazen Serpent" would sure look good on a business card.
jc-09.07.06

While Mike Wachs "applauds our link to better laundering he is still left to wonder what our readers will do when they find themselves needing symbols [PDF] for manure export, dune buggies, and sea anemones."
jc-06.08.06

Doing some research for a client and needed to look at every possible baseball term, phrase, lingo, etc. and happened upon the fantastic: Baseball Dictionary and Thesaurus. Even if you know the game, there's probably something new and interesting you'll find.
sd-03.31.06

"To the average person, the stray shopping cart is most often thought of as a signifier of urban blight or as an indicator of a consumer society gone too far. Unfortunately, the acceptance of these oversimplified designations has discouraged any serious examination of the stray shopping cart phenomenon." Via Shoepal.
jc-03.06.06

Aviation nerd fun, I'm listening to the JFK Tower Air Traffic Control in iTunes right now live. The coolest part is people near the airports are volunteering to pick up the signals through a police scanners and hosting the feeds. Via Clicked.
jc-12.13.05

Calls for entries, events, deadlines and other practical matters for artists. Calling Marcel, from the Artkrush crew.
jc-12.06.05

Take a virtual tour of the "Rivers, Edens, and Empires: Lewis & Clark and the Revealing of America" exhibit at the Library of Congress.
ms-11.01.05

Whether you visit Japan as a tourist or as a businessman - there'll be many occasions for you to drop a brick! To avoid the most common mistakes, see the three chapters of How-to-bow.com and learn about the Japanese etiquette.
tr-09.13.05

Of course anyone with money can just go out and buy a new Leica or Zeiss camera. But the beauty of these objects is they last several lifetimes. So I suggest you buy used. But how will you know which one to buy? Simple, read the several hundred page Leica FAQ run by Andrew Nemeth.
mr-02.01.05

Any Black and White film (there are still over 100 different emulsions available) and any developer (over 100 of those as well). Push 1 stop or 2 or 3, Pull 1 stop or 2, Full Strength, 50% dilution, 33% dilution...no matter, you'll find the exact time and temperature to soak it in the Massive Development Chart, a brilliant reference tool that eliminates endless hours of discussion while encouraging almost reckless experimentation.
mr-01.30.05

We're off to "the endangered species capital of the world" next month to see firsthand the source material for Remains of a Rainbow, a luscious collection of "portraits" of the endangered plants and animals of Hawai'i by David Liittschwager and Susan Middleton, two ex-Avedon assistants who bring a studio photographer's sensibility into nature with amazing finesse.
mr-01.29.05

Whenever I am overwhelmed by numbers that are too large to comprehend, I turn back to Brian Fawcett's entertaining but disturbing Cambodia: a Book for People who find Television Too Slow. Written before the w3, it is a reminder that we were once fearful of what the information society could become. Has it? Are we still?
mr-01.19.05

Mark your calendar. World Water Day is coming March 22. To get in the mood, immerse yourself in Houston's Fotofest 2004 which, in case you missed it, was all about --surprise-- water.
mr-01.11.05

One of the better compilations I've seen about fresh water is from Canada, whose vast water supply we surely plan to tap (take, steal) once we run out. Notice in the section on Properties of Water they conveniently point out that Brazil has two and a half times more freshwater than Canada.
mr-01.08.05

"Some of my colleagues make the error of trying to be reasonable, Floyd. Objectivity is the greatest threat to the United States today." David Brower to Floyd Dominy in John McPhee's Encounters with the ArcHDruid (1971 - but more relevant today than ever). One of my two favorite books on any topic, excerpted here. The other being Cadillac Desert which should change your assumptions about ... well, just about everything by the time you're through.
mr-01.06.05

Time's Men Of the Year, all the covers since Chuck Lindbergh was so named in 1927. Not all of them were heroes, take note.
bb-12.20.04

Meeting of Frontiers is a bilingual, multimedia English-Russian digital library that tells the story of the American exploration and settlement of the West, [and] the parallel exploration and settlement of Siberia and the Russian Far East which offers a wealth of material, including Imperial Russian playing cards, American dime novels, Tsarist and Soviet posters, and much more besides.
sh-09.04.03

Expectant parents have no greater ally than friend of the agency Kevin Shay. Having already created the helpful Name-o-Meter tool, Shay now reveals Create-a-Name, sure to be a hit with the third trimester set.
dr-09.20.02

It's hard to know where to start on James Lileks' sprawling site, so I've randomly chosen Motel Postcards for your viewing pleasure. Lileks' earlier web attraction, "The Gallery of Regrettable Food," became a book recently.
mls-05.15.02

Working on a new color palette for a client site and wanting to be able to rip through some options quickly, led me to the very handy Moock Colour Scheme Machine.jc-05.01.02

In search of something else entirely, I have found that "There is a particular jargon that belongs exclusively to the world of the circus." Where "cherry" means extra work done for extra pay and "lot lice" are townspeople who arrive early to watch the unloading of the bigtop.
jc-10.16.01

Term: "Moved to Atlanta" Definition: "When following a link results in the 404, page not found error, the now-missing page should be said to have moved to Atlanta. The area code there is 404, you see." From Jargon Scout.
jc-11.29.00